Tech Up Your Parents For 2012

Did your parents ask you to do some tech support over the holidays? And every holiday before that?

If you're bored out of your wits answering the same questions over and over again, you may want to show this article which lists a couple of links they might want to check out.

1. First off, they need to know the basics of living a digital life. Teachparentstech.org is a site by Google that covers a couple of things like copying and pasting, taking a screenshot, how to stop getting a newsletter, chatting, attaching files to email, sharing photos, etc. However, this assumes that they already have a Gmail address. If they don't have one, set them up with a Gmail address and forward all their previous email addresses to their Gmail account.

2. Another common task they might ask is to do their gadget research for them. Point them over to Sortable.com, which allows them to search for gadgets via price, features and has a user friendly comparison interface.

3. The lowdown on social networks also need to be explained. For personal use, just tell them to join the networks they want to the most, (be it Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Youtube, Foursquare, etc.) only if they have enough friends on there and if they're committed to maintaining their account and not making a fool of themselves. See this site for funny Facebook posts by parents.

4. Tell your parents to title their emails accordingly so they are easily searchable. For the super organised, they might even want to use the labels.

5. Tell your parents that they can zoom content on their respective tabs if they cannot see the text (at least on Google Chrome). Just click View (Zoom In or Zoom Out). This will enable them to search better.

6. Lastly, try to tell them to ask Google first before asking you because chances are, Google is smarter than you. And let's admit it - you'll end up Googling their question anyway.